Data-driven marketing advocates optimistic

Data-driven marketing advocates optimistic

With more schools teaching data science, finding talent will become easier, says Kengo Horiuchi, director of marketing with Arm Treasure Data.
With more schools teaching data science, finding talent will become easier, says Kengo Horiuchi, director of marketing with Arm Treasure Data.

Data-driven marketing is more than just a buzzword, but the way forward for companies in Asia and Thailand, says Otohiko Kozotsumi, the founder and chief operating officer of AnyMind Group, the Singapore-based operator of AdAsia Holdings.

"The size of the global datasphere is forecast to grow from 33 zettabytes in 2018 to 175 zettabyes in 2025," he told Asia Focus. "If you store all this data on DVDs, they would circle the Earth 222 times." One zettabyte is equivalent to one trillion gigabytes.

Multiple opportunities have emerged in marketing due to the growth of the digital economy, agreed Haruku Ishikawa and Taketo Yoshida, senior manager and software engineer, respectively, at Thailand's Tri Petch Isuzu Sales.

"Thailand was the world's number one country in January 2018," Mr Ishikawa said.

He noted that Thai people spend 1.9 hours a day on YouTube and there are 32 million active Thai users on Facebook every day, far above the global average. This gives companies greater opportunities to collect online data from customers in the region.

"Data usage has changed in terms of how we interact with our devices. Digital assistants have become more and more prevalent," says Vivek Misra, director of strategic initiatives at AnyMind Group.

Shopping behaviour has changed, he observed, with many customers now engaging with shops through payment applications and even in-store beacon technology. Finally, the level of scrutiny of data usage has also changed.

"There is a lot of scrutiny of how data is managed. In Thailand, the first personal data protection act has been passed," he said. This means that "scrutiny is now in some ways an opportunity -- to make it your competitive advantage".

Since privacy has become an increasingly important issue, Apple has, for example, capitalised on its reputation for respecting privacy while Facebook has stumbled.

Mr Misra noted that there are many types of data including first-party data (original data that has been collected), second-party data (another organisation's first-party data) and third-party data that is sold by data aggregators.

"The future belongs to those who can leverage the power of first-party data," he said.

Kamlarp Satchavaradom, data monetisation director for BSS Holdings, says his company has utilised and monetised first-party data, with the potential increasing for the latter.

"Monetising data doesn't mean selling the data -- that's an old business model. There are many ways to make money off data," he said. BSS Holdings is part of VGI Global Media, which is responsible for media and advertising on the Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS).

By accessing data from the Rabbit Card payment system, Rabbit Rewards programme and Kerry Logistics, his company is able to market more effectively to BTS riders, he added.

"Once [riders] use the Rabbit Card and register on Rabbit Rewards, we know their identity," Mr Kamlarp said. "When they are on the BTS, they see our ads; when they go on their mobile, they see the same ads.

"Once we know their destination, we send uniform advertising to their Facebook, YouTube and Google Ads network at that BTS station."

Research shows that combining marketing media this way increases effectiveness by 100%, he said. However, data marketers also face a number of significant challenges. One is on finding data talent.

"This is something that makes me lose sleep every night," said Mr Kamlarp. "People move every year, sometimes every six months."

"Data usage has changed in terms of how we interact with our devices," says Vivek Misra, director of strategic initiatives with AnyMind Group. SUPPLIED

Demand for data scientists has increased by 344% between 2012 and 2019, according to an economist at Indeed.com. To be able to keep talent, Mr Kamlarp recommends giving new staff a lot of training.

"The people who are in the data business love learning," he said. "Everyone in my team is thinking about whether what they do is adding value to the business. We need to ensure that they see the big picture with us."

Kengo Horiuchi, marketing director at Arm Treasure Data, also underlined this point. "No one can have everything, so the skills, the team, the organisation, is also very important," he said.

Thankfully, he said, the learning ecosystem has improved with more schools teaching data science globally. Studying machine learning has also become easier.

Mr Kozotsumi shared survey results about the challenges that face marketers, where 63% of respondents, for example, noted that they found data-driven personalisation difficult.

A big takeaway, he concluded, is the need for goal-based thinking in data marketing to ask questions such as, "what are your users' goals?" and "how do you use data in a way that helps them achieve those goals?"

As Alice LaPlante and Matt LeMay said in their book Data as a Feature, "so-called design thinking is important, even critical. But even more so is goal thinking."

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT